First There Were Fearlings
by Uniasus
Summary: Jack finds himself kidnapped by someone believing he's a star herder. What's of a bigger concern, is just what his kidnapper expects him to help her with.
1. Kidnapped

First There Were Fearlings...

_By Uniasus_

**Chapter 1 - Kidnapped**

* * *

Let it be known, that looking back, Jack had no idea it was coming. Sure, he had gotten a bit more popular in the past decades. But that his presence had been shouted to the stars and he'd developed a fan who went to great lengths to kidnap him was not something he had ever expected would happen. Moon no. Especially since the kidnapping was a pretty sudden affair by a crazy person that only gave him time to share a look with Sandy before, _wham! _he was somewhere new.

And by new, he meant _something not of this earth._ Or even the Moon maybe. But while he had been told it was really a defunct spaceship, Jack had no idea what it looked like. It could have been like this new place, because as he looked out the window he realized that , yes, that was totally a view _from space_. Which meant he was in a _spaceship_. With a crazy woman. Who apparently had parked the ship so far away form Earth Jack couldn't recognize a single constellation in the sky.

Really, he had no idea people this far from Earth even knew of the planet, let alone his pretty face. Suddenly, he wished that had been true.

They were in a room made of metal with a very large window, and she was pressing buttons and pulling levers and for once ignoring him. The ship lurched, the window turned bright white, and Jack had to hide his eyes. Even then, it took a while for his sight to balance out again.

They were _moving_ in space. Oh, this really was not his day.

The crazy woman was pulling on his arms. She was on hyper-speed, words tumbling out of her mouth so fast that even if she was speaking English Jack wouldn't be able to understand. She was pulling on his hair and touching his skin, pressing her fingers against it and watching with amazement at how the pressure didn't change his coloring. She fingered his clothes and got all up in his space Jack had no option but to defend himself.

With a _whoosh_, the room grew frost. She slipped on the ice, obviously surprised and just gaped at him because, oh man, she had not been expecting that! For a crazy fan-kidnapper, she certainly didn't know much about him.

"Man, you're worse than Baby Tooth. And just like her, I _can't understand a single thing you're saying._ I mean, I'm flattered and all, that you'd go through all this effort to bring me here to gush, but my answer is no. I won't be Pippa's boyfriend and I certainly won't be yours either! Now, I can give you my autograph, maybe even a piece of my hair if that's the only thing that will calm you down. But hands off! And take me back!"

She just stared at him, eyes wide and blinking, fingers feeling the frost as he just stared.

With a huff, Jack crossed his arms and stared back.

Now that she was, well, a bit more calm, he had the chance to get a good look at her. Long brown hair, the top pulled back into a plait. She was wearing green and had cheekbones and a nose that was creepily familiar. Yellow, yes, yellow eyes looked him over. Barefooted toes to white hair and back.

She said something at him, but Jack shook his head. "I don't speak crazy lady."

She said something else, and Jack understood it was a different language. He still didn't understand it though. "I don't know unhinged either. Don't you know English? Or French? I know a little bit of Spanish and Norwegian, but other than that I think we're at an impasse."

Slowly, the woman stood up, shoes slipping on the frost that was melting to water. Well, at least she was obeying the rules of personal space now. She made a humming noise and turned to a panel behind her. It seemed to be a speaker, if space speakers looked the same as the ones on Earth. She bent over and talked it.

From the ceiling, the phrase repeated. And then again in another language. She looked at Jack, and getting the idea that hey, he was supposed to recognize whatever that phrase was but didn't, shook his head. She frowned, and fiddled with computer things, each time the phrase switched tongues. Finally, finally, what came from the ceiling was something he understood.

She was asking, quite frankly, "Can you understand this?"

"Yup! This one! This is English!"

The crazy woman nodded and moved to a compartment on the far wall. Jack followed, not too close of course because he didn't want to give the crazy woman any more ideas, and watched as she took out two headbands. Disregarding personal space again, she fitted one on Jack's head. It was tight, she obvious had a smaller head even if she was taller, and circled his head like the headbands kids would wear when out in the snow. Soft and fabricy too, until something bit him behind the ear.

"Ow!" He pulled the thing off, had just enough time to see something sliver and pointy coming out of the fabric before she was forcing it back on his head.

"No, no! You can't have my ear!"

She yelled at him in her language, doing her best to put the headband on while he did his best to keep it off.

"Back off!" He shouted, fully fed up, and asserted the command with a blast from his staff. It froze her to the panel, and Jack felt rather pleased with himself at the look on her face.

"I said no! I don't want your head piece or love token or what ever this is, I just want to go back. Take me home!"

She shook her head and said something back at him but he didn't understand. Seeing the problem, she frowned, and then put her hand on the ice holding her in place. Ice, which started to melt far faster than it should have just by touch.

_He was on a spaceship with a fire alien!_

"Dang it!" Crazy kidnapper lady wasn't just crazy she obviously had some control over fire and/or warmth. Not good, not good for a poor little frost spirit, far from home where his friends and family and power source was. Oh man oh man.

She broke free and Jack immediately jumped into the air. He had fallen back on old habits, but it was quickly evident that there was no wind, sentient or not, he could use to get away from her. He fell to the floor, his knees hitting the metal painfully, and watched with wide eyes as she walked straight for him.

And then around him.

She was at the speaker again, and a translation came down from the ceiling.

"It's just a portable translator! Obvious, you should know stuff like this. You wear it, it hooks into your ear canal, and then works with your brain so that everything others say you hear in the programmed language. Only the main computer has a translation software, and I really don't want to be limited to staying here. The lounge is much better. So quit freaking out and put it on!"

Jack is pretty sure he only put it on because she scared him. She sounded pissed and he was quite surprised there wasn't steam coming out of her ears. Slowly, so as not to startle an attack, he walked over to his fallen headgear and then put it on. It stung when the needle entered his ear canal, but when he understood what she said next, without the use of the booming ceiling voice, he supposed it was worth it.

"Right. Questions. You have them. Shall we talk over drinks?"

"Um...okay?"

He followed as she led the way, mumbling under her breath. Jack was thrilled to find that the headgear not only picked and translated what she was saying, but also changed the volume so it felt like she was speaking at a normal tone.

"He's supposed to be looking out for me! Not the other way around. I bet he's the only one left cuz he's stupid."

Jack decided not to call her out on that comment. It seemed best not to make crazy people angry.

* * *

**A/N:** It must be said that the idea from this fic came from Lindzzz, who in her fic Things That Were mentioned that in that verse Pitch is a juvenile star.

For those of you waiting for more on Facets of Belief, it is finished, but being beta'd. So it'll come. Promise.


	2. Stars

**First There Were Fearlings...**

_By Uniasus_

**Chapter 2 – Stars**

* * *

**A/N: **In case you didn't get the idea earlier, this is AU. Very AU. My entire awareness of the back story of these characters comes from fanfiction and we all know how reliable that is. Just to let you know, in case you read this and think _that's not right..._. It most likely isn't. But for the sake of this story, I don't really care. Cuz it cool. And will probably play with cannon a bit more than you see on average.

* * *

Sanderson always viewed his home as safe. It constantly moved, constantly changed shape, and since it was essentially made up of parts of his real body he didn't need to create the Sandman's typical shape, he was always aware of what was going on.

It was home. It was safe. It had just been invaded.

Jack had come by for a visit. Nothing too major, just to say hi while he was passing through the area. Sanderson had invited him in for a bit, they were both thrill seekers and he had been itching to recreate an amusement park and use it. They had a good hour, but then Sanderson had to go out and bring dreams. He had led the way to the deck of the ship his home currently had, turned to listen to Jack's promise to see him next time when it happened.

A transport beam filled the space between them and in it appeared a woman. The shooting star only got a quick glimpse at her face before she had rounded on Jack and started making statements and asking questions too fast for either of them to respond.

Jack just looked bewildered, he obviously had no idea what she was saying or what she wanted or where she was from. Sanderson however was blown away by her language.

It was a bastardized version of Verbal Star. Or at least he though it was. Main sequence adult stars spoke in radiation patterns, but juvenile stars, in their humanoid forms couldn't. Instead they had a verbal language, and she was speaking some form of it Sanderson was having a hard time understanding. He hadn't even thought anyone still spoke the language. When the Golden Age died, he hadn't thought anyone other than Pitch, himself, and the Lunaoff prince had survived. Certainly not a juvenile star. So where did she learn the language?

That was a question for another time. At the moment, the important thing was understanding what she was saying. Something about caretakers and a darkness, having heard about 'one of you' from light years away. Sanderson caught the name 'Nightlight' and flew around to face her so they could talk. But just at that moment, the transport beam pulled her back to her ship, taking Jack with her.

Oh asteroids, this was not good.

It took Sanderson some time to decided what to do. The other Guardians would have to be told, obviously, but this hit a little closer to home to someone else. Pitch Black. Or rather, who he had been before Pitch Black – Kozmotis Pitchner.

Sanderson fretted the entire way to Burgess, only half paying attention to the dreams he wove. Jack had insisted on open channels with the Nightmare King, becoming something like friends with him, but the rest of the Guardians kept their distance. However, they did know where the entrances to his lairs were in case they needed to get a hold of him. Like now. Sanderson had never appreciated Jack's budding friendship with Pitch until this moment, because despite their shared history the wishing star doubted he would have been able to talk to Pitch about his home invasion.

Pitch really needed to hear about it.

He didn't bother with knocking, just flew into the tunnel and soon found himself in a large cave with cage chandeliers. Pitch was no where to be seen, but he must have sensed Sanderson's arrival because he was suddenly behind him.

"Sanderson, to what do I owe the pleasure."

He didn't bother with the pictographs he used with the Guardians. As a shooting star, a comet, his natural language was that of visual light. Kozmotis had been a juvenile star, perhaps still was but the issue of the fearlings made things tricky, and thus could understand him. Sanderson had never been more thankful for that.

-I just had a visitor. I think she's a juvenile star.-

"That's impossible, they're all dead." Pitch would know that. Being personally responsible for the collapse of the Golden Age.

-She spoke Verbal, albeit so different from that time period. It was hard to understand. She also, strangely, came here because of Jack.-

"As in Jack Frost? What would someone who can speak Verbal what with him?"

-I think she was confused. She mentioned Nightlight and traveling far to find him.-

"Nightlight is dead."

-Yes. But you have to admit, Jack is reminiscent of him. I have often wondered if Lunaoff didn't talk to him because of that.-

"I'll admit, I was a bit taken back myself when I first saw Frost. White hair, pale skin, bright eyes. I thought he was a star herder. The staff didn't help."

-I think she thought the same thing. Stories from Earth travel, and with distance things can get muddied. If tales of Jack are reduced to his appearance and talents, and not his nature as a spirit, it is quite possible someone would come looking thinking he's a star herder. -

"Why would anyone be that interested in a star herder? Unless they're interested in anthropology or..."

-Or are a juvinile star. Pitch, she's got technology. She came in a transporter beam, and then beamed her and Jack onto her ship. That beam was powerful enough where she hadn't parked in the atmosphere. That advancement wasn't around till the Golden Age.-

"You said she took Frost?"

-Yes. And who knows where they are now.-

"Good riddance. I've been trying to get him to leave me alone for years."

Sanderson crossed his arms. -You can't hide it from me. I know you like him. But there's something else. Pitch, I only saw her face briefly, but...but she looked like you.-

"That's crazy. I can believe that someone with a scavenged Golden Age ship came here following a tale of a star herder look alike. And maybe she spoke Verbal, badly as you told me, because she thought the 'star herder' would understand it. But for a juvenile star that looks like me to show up at your place? That's a bit whimsical, even for you."

Pitch wasn't going to believe him, no matter what Sanderson said. And maybe the other star couldn't, not yet anyway. And he had to admit, the idea was quite preposterous. The fall of the Golden Age had been complete, and the relics had stayed together. She couldn't possibly be one. Still, if she was. If she had slipped through the cracks of destruction somehow...

Sanderson doubted she would be wholly sane. Who knew what she would do to Jack when she found out he wasn't what she expected?

-Will you help us get him back?-

"Frost? I suppose I'll have to. If only just to play translator."

* * *

**A/N: **I do hope Sandy's speak isn't too hard to read. And like I warned before, AU. I know nothing about star herders. Or Nightlight really. But well, artistic license is a wonderful thing.


	3. Introductions

**Chapter 3 - Introductions**

* * *

She made the drinks. Jack had no idea how to use any of the controls, and well, after that incident with Jamie's microwave, and his mom's laptop, he was hesitant to really deal with anything technological.

Still, she could have asked what he wanted! Dang crazy woman not even asking his preferences. But then, he did suppose kidnappers were more concerned with their needs – possessing people – and not what the possessed person wanted. What if he wanted what she was drinking? That, orange, bubbling drink? Granted he didn't know if it was was bubbling because of carbonation or because it was, well boiling. For all Jack knew, she could be drinking liquid fire. She was a fire alien after all.

Suddenly, Jack was thrilled with his glass of water. Even if it tasted a bit funny.

"Are you gonna take me home now?"

"Yes."

"Well, that's a relief! Why'd you kidnap me?"

She rolled her eyes. "I did not kidnap you, you belong with me. You've simply been missing for centuries."

Ri~ght. "Look, I know I still don't have all my memories, but I can guarantee you, you don't appear in a single one of them."

"You don't have all your memories? That would explain why you freaked out earlier."

"Excuse me?! You just showed up out of no where and brought me here and started talking in your gobbledygook. Anyone would freak out!"

"It's not gobbledygook! It's Verbal! Your people used to speak it all the time with mine. Our species worked in harmony. Surely if you don't remember me, you must remember others of my kind."

"No."

She raised an eyebrow at him. "Your memory must be full of gaps. Do you even know your true name?"

"True name?"

"In your own tongue."

"English?"

"English? Don't tell me you've forgotten how to speak Soneta. Well, good thing these translators still work. Same question. What is your true name? The name you were born with."

"Jackson Overland."

She wrinkled her nose. "That's very unusual for your kind."

"Why? Cuz it's not related to my job?" He supposed the other spirits had names that had some link to their function. Mansnoozie, snooze. Toothiana, tooth, Bunnymund, bunny, North...North Pole?

"Yes."

"Well, I usually go by Jack Frost. Cuz, you know," he tapped the end of his staff on the ground and the metal plating found itself cover in frost ferns.

"Still, rather odd. Though I suppose some of your kind had names relating to the cold and darkness of space."

Some of his kind? Crazy and rude.

"Do you have a name too?"

"Oh, Daddy would be so ashamed, forgetting my manners in my excitement in meeting you. I'm Seraphina Pitchner, but no one's called me that in ages."

"What do they call you?"

"The AI calls me 'Miss'."

"Do you want me to call you 'Miss?'"

"Don't be silly. Sera is fine. Now," she set her drink down and returned to the habit of invading personal space.

Sera placed her hands on either side of Jack's head, moving it back and forth. "It would help immensely if you actually had all your memories. Well, we'll see what I can do."

"You can retract memories?"

"Well, yes. Maybe. Depends on the brain."

Jack wasn't entirely sure wanted Crazy Sera poking around in his brain, but well. His teeth had given him very few memories considering he had been human for a full fourteen years. Okay, maybe he shouldn't count years one to three cuz who remembered anything from then. So, eleven years of memories. Jack figured if you stitched all the memories he had into a movie, it would be exactly one hour, thirty seven, and eleven seconds long.

Not much to show for all those years.

"This won't hurt, will it?" He asked, relenting to her pulling as she led the way to a different part of the ship.

"Maybe? I mean, well, it shouldn't, but this ship is older than me. Not that I'm very old. Maybe eight million? No where near the age of change, I'm maybe only half way there. But well, if everything is in working condition this won't hurt at all! Except maybe if you did something to your own brain to make you forget." She shoved him in a chair and Jack watched with horror as she pulled a helmet from the wall.

"And what if someone else hid my memories?"

"Well, if he wanted them gone forever, than this is going to hurt."

The helmet slammed down on his head, he heard a flip switch, and then his mind was full, bursting with color and sounds and images, changing too fast for him to pick anything out, no focus or anything to ground him, Jack felt like he was spinning and spinning while at the same time falling and flying, and vaguely he wondered if this was what Jamie felt like when the kid complained from too much homework, too much information stuffed into his head, a brain freeze, where things turn painful and then shut down because it's too much, too much at once and...

The next thing Jack could fully understand was the space toilet under his hands (which really was just a hole in the ground) and the heaving his stomach was doing. Ugg, worse than when he tried to see how long he could stand on the Equator.

Crazy Sera couldn't even let him feel awful in peace. "Did it work? Did it hurt? Do you remember Verbal now? Or Soneta? What about the Lunanoffs?"

"Please, just, shut up. And get me a glass of water."

With a huff, she walked away. When she returned, she forced the glass into his hand hard enough water spilled over the sides. It froze when it came in contact with Jack's skin.

Sera prodded at the frozen water while Jack concentrated on rinsing out his mouth. He was surprised that the contact didn't result in water running down his wrist. Maybe she could control her fire touch. He could think of a few elementals that couldn't, much to his displeasure. But maybe there was a difference between being someone magical, an embodiment of an element, and just being an alien with powers over an element.

"So, did it?"

"I, I think so. My brain feels so full, it's hard to say. But I certainly feel as if things are missing less. I can...I can remember my mother! All of my memories before were of my sister and the other kids. But there she is! Standing on the ship. And...Dad! Wow, I...Olivia and I obliviously take after Mom."

"What about language?"

Jack tried to stop her from ripping off the translator. To no avail. She said things in two different languages, but Jack didn't understand either of them.

"Look," he said, slipping the headband back on. "I didn't forget those languages, I never knew them. Heck, I was born on Earth and have never left it since you showed up at Sandy's and...are you even listening to me?"

The ship shuttered and Sera jumped to her feet. "We're here, we're here, we're here!"

"Where's here?"

"You wanted to go home, and so here we are! Come on, lets get ready to disembark, you'll love it."

Of course he would love it. He was very fond of Earth, missed it dearly and as interesting as this trip had been once the headache disappeared and his thoughts settled he would be very glad Sera helped him get his memories. But he would be very, very happy to leave her company.

* * *

**A/N:** Personal note, I named Jack's sister after the actress who voiced her. Cuz I don't know if she has a name and my rare Internet time is better spent posting chapters than researching for them. I think anyway.


	4. A Trip to the Moon

**Chapter 4 - A Trip to the Moon**

* * *

"She did what?" Bunnymund asked, staring at Sanderson.

"Who would want to take Jack?" Toothiana threw in.

Not wanting to repeat himself, Sanderson looked pointedly at Pitch. The ex-star would be able to explain better than him anyway. The others would just have to get over their dislike of the Boogieman. In this case, he was useful. As a translator. Plus, Sanderson knew that Pitch was secretly fond of Jack and worried for the young spirit. And there was the added element of the juvenile star, there was the possibility she _was_ Pitch's, the old Pitch's, Kozmotis's, daughter. She looked enough like him. But Sanderson also knew that for some reason, Pitch could remember nothing of the emotional ties Kozmotis had to people. Just facts and events from the Golden Age.

"A misunderstanding. Sanderson said she thought Jack was a star herder."

Bunnymund took a step back. He was usually startled by random mentions of things that happened eons ago. "A star herder? Jack?"

"Pale and likes to stare at the moon? It's an understandable mistake if someone was familiar with them."

"But no one is. Not anymore. Well, no one who knows Jack isn't one."

"Which is the issue."

"So," St. North broke in, "Some old spirit, Bunny's age at least, came to Earth to take a star herder for some reason, and seeing Jack, took him? Why?"

Sanderson tried to tell them his theory, since he didn't think Pitch would, but the man rolled his eyes and went ahead and explained. "Sanderson thinks she was a juvenile star. Traditionally, star herders served as their protectors of a sort. Making sure they grew up, because they feed off the radiation main sequence stars give out. I think she's just a historian who was excited about the chance to meet a star herder. Once she realizes Jack's not, she'll bring him back."

"And how long will that take?" Toothiana asked. "Winter's not that far off."

"The better question is, what if Sandy's idea is right?" Bunnymund frowned. "She could be a survivor, looking for something normal from her old life."

"There were no survivors." Pitch's voice left no room for argument. Sanderson placed a hand on his arm, but it was shaken off.

St. North opened his mouth to say something, but Toothiana gasped and pointed behind Sanderson. He turned to find the Moon had joined their conversation. On the Guardian symbol, moon shadows showed a tiny spaceship flying to the old space ship.

"If Manny wants us to go to Moon, this must be very big deal. Bigger than your attack ten years ago, Pitch."

Pitch ignored the Russian, staring at the now departing moonlight. Sanderson could only image what was going through the younger man's head. He had been the one to bring about the end of the Golden Age. Had been the one to kill all those people, stars and pooka and star herders while possessed by the fearlings. He had memories of slaughtering every single person, because the fearlings hated to leave someone alive. The thought of survivors...

There must be survivors.

"If Manny wants us to visit, I think Sandy's right. It was a star who took Jack." Toothiana fluttered nervously about. Her heritage made her aware of life beyond Earth. Jack however had just heard stories. "Why?"

"They're protectors." Bunnymund asked. "She must feel like she's in danger."

Sanderson made an image of a scary monster above his head and then expanded it while he answered. -The foes of the stars were fearsome, more so than anything here on Earth.-

Pitch winced at that, but it was true. Eventually, he had tamed the fearlings that took over his body, even if it had changed him.

-Whatever she needs protecting from, it is sure to be more than Jack can handle.-

The Guardians understood well enough.

"My ship isn't exactly useable. I'm assuming we'd use yours?" Pitch turned to Sanderson.

He nodded. It was be a tight fight. A very tight fit. St. North might have to expand it magically.

"We?" Bunnymund asked

"Yes." Pitch assured. "I'm more familiar with stars than you, rabbit. And it may surprise you, but I do care for Frost."

The pooka bristled. Sanderson quickly flew in between them. He didn't need to talk to get the message across – _no fighting_. And that he was siding with Pitch.

Bunnymund didn't look happy with the idea, but he stood down. "Fine. Sandy, what's the quickest we can leave?"

After a quick conversation with St. North about magic, Sanderson figured they could take off in a few hours. They could time it with the rising sun to hide the glow of the ship.

"I'll get my swords." Toothiana said before flying off. "I feel like I'll need them."

Sanderson watched her leave, and then Bunnymund.

"Let me get my weapon, and then we go." St. North said, heading towards the armory.

"Do you think he hates me?" Pitch asked, once the other Guardians had left.

-Who?-

"Lunanoff."

-Maybe. But I'm sure he knows that you aren't the same person who killed his parents. You've changed.-

Pitch didn't answer.

* * *

**A/N:** Again, completely making up the role of star herders. Cuz I've never read the books. Unless someone wants to gift me with kindle versions?


	5. Moon and Air

**Chapter 5 - Moon and Air**

* * *

Jack was getting a bit suspicious that outside the doors of the ship, was not Burgess. Or even Earth.

"Shouldn't I wear one of those too?"

Crazy Sera was putting on what could only be called a space suit. Helmet, backpack full of air, thick chunky boots. She hadn't been wearing one when she kidnapped him.

"No. Technically, I don't either, but it's been awhile since I've been here. Can you zip me up?"

Jack just clutched his staff tighter and didn't move a single inch nearer to the door. He'd seen movies with Jamie and knew exactly what happened when people were ejected into space. It wasn't pretty. And being forced onto the surface of a planet that his kidnapper most likely needed air for wasn't much better.

"Look, I really, really think you should give me one of those. Cuz, see, I'm from Earth. You know, planet with oxygen in the air? And water? And not here?!"

"What are you talking about?"

"I don't think I'm who you think I am."

"Who else would look like you?"

Um...

She took advantage of his confusion to grab his staff. "Hey!" Jack reached for it, but she danced out of his reach.

"Come and get it Jack!"

He lunged for her, just as she opened the doors to outside. Jack found himself on all fours on rough stone _and he couldn't breathe._ Sera was crazy for kidnapping and certainly delusional to think that _he could be on an alien planet without a supply of air._ She wasn't even noticing his trouble! Instead she was leaning on his staff like it was an old habit, staring up solemnly at the stars.

It was like drowning all over again. Warmer, but that was because he rarely felt cold now, and dryer, but there was still pressure on his chest and the fear of not breathing. To die twice, in a similar matter...Jack did not sign up for this!

But some how, he wasn't dead. He was still trying, unsuccessfully, to suck down air, and still living. How was that possible?

On instinct, he looked up at the Moon. Or course, it wasn't the same moon. It was smaller, less bumpy, had an orange tinge to it. This one didn't talk to him either. But then he supposed, this one was a real moon, a giant hunk of rock and what else while the one that orbited Earth was just a beat up space ship on which lived a young man. Apparently he was still considered young though he'd been alive for millions of years. But he was a young man with incredible magical properties. Because, well, he had created the Guardians and brought Jackson Overland back to life as Jack Frost.

Oh.

Right.

Sometimes, he forgot he was dead.

He didn't actually have to breathe.

So he stopped trying. Stood up. And re-stole his staff.

Crazy Sera fell onto the rock and Jack couldn't help but laugh. To his surprise, it was silent. Oh yeah, not enough air to inflate his lungs and move pass his vocal cords. Note to self – bring some means of communication next time he exists a space ship.

Sera apparently had no trouble talking. Jack blamed the suit, with it's pressurized air and microphones. Microphones which apparently could transmit to the headband he was still wearing.

"Adjusted to the air already? What's it feel like, to be home?"

Jack looked around him. They were in a rocky plain, some type of overlook. Below was a large, golden city. It has spires and crystal windows and just radiated beauty. However, it was also still. Empty. Looking closer, Jack could see collapsed buildings, piles of built up dust. There was no one living there. Hadn't been for awhile.

He turned to take in the rest of the area. There was a small village, nestled against a rock wall, and Jack found himself compelled to go towards it. Sera didn't follow, despite how closely she'd watched and clung to him earlier. Still, Jack could feel her eyes on him. She wasn't going to let him go.

Compared to the city below, the village was simple. Crude. Stone houses and caves. Small spaces. There were small piles of white stones all over the place, many had small glowing crystals near them.

Jack bent down, curious. He picked up a crystal and it glowed brighter in his hand. It had been filed down to a point, reminding him of arrowheads. Jack wouldn't be surprised if they were arrowheads, alien arrowheads. Which would make the small white stones -

"Bones." Sera crouched down next to him, sifting her hands through the pile. "I would have thought they would have become part of the earth, it's been so long, but the atmosphere here has always been thin. Even more so now."

Most of the piles were outside of the village, and as Jack walked through it the piles inside the houses don't have crystals and were on average smaller. Children. Children in the homes, while the adult fought off something that killed them all. And then attacked the city below. Jack turned to Sera, mouth open to ask what had attacked them, because Jack was pretty sure she knew.

But of course, no air. No sound.

"Maybe it was a bad idea to bring you here. These were your people after all."

Jack shook his head. He may be dead, he may be a spirit of magic and frost whose continued existence depended on children and a small group of teenagers (and man, hormones, that's what he's blaming Pippa's kiss attack on). But he was not an alien.

"Come on. There's something you need to see."

Jack pocketed the crystal and she pulled him away, closer to the ship. Now that he could actually see it, he was surprised by how small it was. It had seemed bigger on the inside, but in reality was about the size of Jamie's house. Including the wing like thingies.

Sera took him to the other side of the ship, so that it blocked their view of the village and city. She pointed up into the sky. "See? They're dying. Something is eating my family."

But there was nothing to see but stars. Lots of stars, more than he could see from earth to the point where they lit up the night and cast shadows along with the moon.

Jack wanted to tell her that whatever alien she thought he was, he wasn't. Was quite curious too as to what about him made her think that. He also felt like telling her she was crazy. Because nothing was dying in the sky, nothing was even there but stars. Her family wasn't up there. But when he turned to look at her, she looked so sad. And believed it so much.

"You'll protect them from it, won't you? Protect me?"

Jack was, at his core, the Guardian of Fun. He hated seeing Sera looking so sad and it upset him that he couldn't think of a game to play. This area was too foreign, and he had no idea if she knew games equivalent to those on Earth. Was there a fire alien of hopscotch? Jump rope? Hide-and-go-seek? Jack had no idea. But he did know that she was scared of something, something that may or may not be in the sky and real. Here, underneath a foreign sky, Jack understood she had been alone for a very, very long time. Longer than he had been. And as a Guardian, he couldn't very well abandon her.

So he did the only thing he could and nodded.

He'd make his way back to Earth. Eventually. Because he seriously doubted that this far from home, the Guardians could find him.

* * *

**A/N:** I started this fic as something humorous, and it turns into this. *sigh*


	6. Unlocked

**Chapter 6 - Unlocked**

* * *

Sanderson had never actually been to the moon ship, just seen it from afar. It's size always got to him. It was considered the biggest ship ever built and yet in the end it had only transported a single family. And now, only one person lived there.

The Lunanoff child was hardly a child any more. He looked close to twenty by human standards, but Sanderson knew he was much older. He couldn't be much shy of a billion. But, well, that was a child to Sanderson. He'd been around much longer.

St. North, Toothiana, and Bunnymund all bowed when he meet them in the docking bay. Pitch stood there staring at the floor. Sanderson simply looked at Lunanoff. He felt no great attachment to the boy, he had never been a leader among comets, but he did have power and was a, if very detached, ally. Not that he did a whole lot. Sanderson supposed royals were very used to delegating, and the Guardians didn't mind the job. Enjoyed it for the most part.

It was quite obvious St. North, who always greeted Lunanoff with a joyous 'Manny!' now wondered if the same level of friendliness applied to face to face interactions. Lunanoff was a ruler of a empire, even if it had been destroyed eons ago. And was perhaps their boss.

Lunanoff had no such qualms.

"Please, please. Don't bow. We've been friends for ages, no point in suddenly being so formal." He went around hugging the Guardians, but only gave a polite nod to Pitch. Pitch hesitantly returned it.

Lunanoff led the way and Sanderson took the time to admire the ship. It was beautifully crafted. The hallway they made their way through was lined with framed paintings of the Golden Age, and some from before that. He looked at those fondly, for Sanderson had grown up before the Golden Age started. If Jack were here, he's certainly say something about his age. Or simply be freezing the moonmice that scuttled about. Normally, they'd stay behind the walls, but well, if Lunanoff wanted their company Sanderson wasn't going to complain.

"So what's the point in inviting us here?" Bunnymund asked as they stepped into what appeared to be the flight deck. "I mean, you've never done that before."

"Part of the reason is because you will need to travel far to find Jack. I'm afraid Sandy is correct in thinking our lost friend was kidnapped by a juvenile star. And if my readings are correct, she's taking him to the old capital."

"Aurelias?" Pitch asked, surprised. "I, I had no idea that someone from that time was still around."

Lunanoff looked at him sadly. "You weren't supposed to. And that, my Guardians, is the real reason I asked you to come." He gestured to a moonbot in the corner and when it approached Sanderson noticed the box in it's hand.

A box imprinted by a symbol he'd seen before on Pitch's ship.

"This," Lunanoff placed the box in Pitch's hand, "is yours, General."

Pitch frowned at the address. He knew, once upon a time he had been a General named Kozmotis Pitchner. Sanderson and him had discussed it a few years back after Jack had asked some pointed questions. However, Sanderson knew Pitch only knew that as a fact. His earliest memories were of murder and mayhem, and so it was no surprise that he turned to extreme measures in getting belief.

Toothiana fluttered closer, curious. "It feels a bit like my teeth capsules."

Lunanoff nodded. "It should. It works the same way. I'll leave you to decide if you want to open it, but considering who took Jack you may want to."

"Who did take Jack?" St. North asked.

In response, the moonbot pressed a button and the main view screen lit up. It had an image of the woman and Jack at Sanderson's home. He had no idea the cameras on the moon where that good. The resolution was incredible. Jack's shocked face was easy to read and...well, it wasn't just Sanderson who thought the juvenile star and Pitch shared facial features judging by the way Bunnymund kept looking between the two. Toothiana was staring too.

St. North however was paying attention to something other than the similarities between Pitch and the renegade star. "She does not look, well, right."

Now that he mentioned it, Sanderson could see it too. The image allowed him to get a better look at her than he had at home. Her eyes were hollow with shadows under them. She looked thin, ragged. A little, a little desperate.

"I suspect she had been alone for quite some time," Lunanoff guested. "I had no idea she had survived."

"You know her?" Toothiana flew close to the screen. "Would she hurt Jack?"

"I do not think so, but what ever she wanted him for I do not think he can handle. I do believe he is in over his head."

"What's her name?" Pitch asked, staring at the image and fingering the box.

"Seraphina."

Seraphina! No wonder she looked familiar, this was Pitchner's daughter! Sanderson tried to hide his recognition, but Pitch picked up on it. Of course he would.

"Care to share your knowledge, Sandman?" Pitch asked, drawing everyone's attention.

Sanderson firmly shook his head, signing a very obvious 'no' that everyone could understand.

The Nightmare King frowned. "Would it be bad if I didn't know her?"

He obviously made the connection that whatever Lunanoff had given him, it had to do with memories and some of them involved the woman who took Jack. But would it actually hurt the mission and put Jack in danger if Pitch didn't know Seraphina was his daughter? Maybe. It certainly depended on her. She looked, well, maybe not crazy, but certainly in a mindset where maybe she wasn't thinking clearly.

Sanderson shrugged. -I do not know. But if a time comes where your lack of knowledge is a danger, I will tell you.-

Pitch nodded, staring at the box. Sanderson kept an eye on him, while the rest of the Guardians conversed with with Lunanoff about the best way to reach Jack and what possibly Seraphina would want him for. She thought he was a star herder, with all the cultural norms that went with it. They protected her species, though hers was much more technologically advanced. That didn't change the fact that star herders were much more in tune with the universe, able to provide forewarning of danger and actually utilize light as a weapon better than any other species. They were the one species that could hold their ground against fearlings, which is why Pitch Black had destroyed them all as soon as he could.

Sanderson never understood the idea to have Kozmotis Pitchner guard them instead of the star herders.

There was a gasp from beside him and Sanderson turned to see Pitch had opened first the box, and then the golden locket inside. It was a pained sound and immediately caught the attention of everyone in the room. Toothiana zoomed over, well aware of the effects of memory. She hovered, not quite touching Pitch but expecting him to keel over any moment.

He wasn't looking at anything, eyes not focused on but directed at the locket. With a jerk, he came back to himself, breathing heavily and started to widely look around the room.

"Pitch? Pitch are you okay?" Toothiana was flitting to side to side, always staying in Pitch's vision. "Pitch?"

Gently, Lunanoff pushed her aside. "General Pitchner?"

Pitch's eyes snapped to him, wide with horror. He had always known he had killed the Tzar and Tzarina, but he had never recalled the emotional attachment that came with memories of knowing them.

Pitch fell over to prostrate himself on the ground, muttering apologies in Verbal and asking Lunanoff to kill him, to punish him for turning against his leader. Pooka had their own language, Sanderson didn't know if Bunnymund could understand but it was evident by the shocked look on their faces that St. North and Toothiana didn't.

Lunanoff, with all the grace of a saint, bent down to lift up Pitch's chin.

"I'm not the same, but I swear, I will do anything, _anything_ to make it up to you."

"You can start by helping to retrieve Jack Frost. As it is, winter will most likely be late. It would no do for it to not happen at all this year."

"Of course, of course."

Bunnymund was eying Pitch suspiciously. Like Lunanoff, he was the last of his kind thanks to Pitch Black and Sanderson knew he was also less forgiving. Toothiana was trying to hide her obvious interest in the locket, no doubt a desire to find out how it worked, and as if sensing the request on her tongue Pitch clasped it around his neck and slipped it under the folds of his robe. The chain was visible, but nothing else.

St. North cleared his throat. "We should go get Jack now. Manny had given us coordinates, and one of the smaller ships docked here. Should be bigger than yours Sandy."

All ships were bigger than his. His was designed for a collection of stardust-cum-dream sand, not people with solid forms. Even with St. North's magic expansion, Toothiana was still sitting on St. North's lap. Not that he seemed to mind.

"Seraphina, my-" Pitch cut himself off as he stood up.

"Your daughter did not do anything malicious. If anything, she's in need of aid. She is welcome to join us on Earth. And I would very much like to hear her story."

Pitch nodded and led the way to the docking bay. Sanderson could tell he was anxious to be off the moon.

* * *

**A/N:** This chapter made me regret a little bit that the second POV is Sandy. Cuz Pitch goes through so much here. But well, these themes and feelings have been explored by other authors so you're welcome to find them elsewhere. I'm sticking with Sandy.


	7. Star Eater

**Chapter 7 - Star Eater**

* * *

Back on the ship, where Jack had air and thus could talk again, he somehow convinced Sera to lie down. The trip outside to see the city and village had drained her, the high energy she had displayed when they first meet fading away into a shell of a person.

"Go to bed!" She was worse than Jamie, despite being older than him. Much older. Did she say eight million earlier? Man she looked good for her age. Not a day older than 30. Well, maybe 25 with a good night's sleep. If it was night.

Time in space was so wonky.

With Sera tucked into bed, well, tucked wasn't the right word cuz apparently fire aliens didn't need blankets, she was just sorta lying on this springy thing, Jack decided to see if he could find out more about a) just what type of alien she was b) what type of alien she thought he was c) who was dying and d) what she needed protection from.

Of course, such information was very hard to get when the one person who knew the answers was conked out. With a sigh, Jack collapsed into the chair he had sat it earlier that evening. Day. Morning. Really, he hadn't seen the sun for hours and was so messed up right now.

"I don't even know how long I've been gone."

"Thirty six hours, five minutes, and sixteen seconds." The ceiling said.

"What the hell?" Jack jumped up, staff pointed at the ceiling. "Who's there?"

"I am the ship's AI. Now that Miss is asleep, you have command of the ship."

"I have no idea how to command a ship."

"I am here to answer any questions."

"I don't have to touch you? It can be all verbal?" Cuz in his experience, ice and silicon chips did not go together. At all. No siree.

"Yes."

Jack rubbed his hands together. Finally, some answers! First things first. "Where are we?"

"We are on Wrice, one of two moons orbiting the planet Opar."

"And the city outside?"

"It is called Aurelias."

"Do you have, I don't know, pictures of what it looked like?"

A screen flipped out from the wall and Jack was treated to not only pictures, but videos. It looked like it had been a thriving city, fully of fire aliens like Sera. After asking question after question he learned that the city, no the entire empire in it's Golden Age, had been attacked by something called fearlings. After a brief period of imprisonment, they came back stronger than ever and wiped out every empire citizen. Well, almost. There was Sera. And surprisingly, the royal family out there somewhere. But they were all that was left of a glittering empire, the last of a species.

And they weren't just fire aliens, they were _stars. _Like butterflies, they went from eggs to larvae to winged instincts. Sera was a larvae, what was commonly called a juvenile star, and eventually, in a few more million years, she would take a personal spaceship into space, find a good spot, and explode outward to become a main sequence star.

All the stars in the sky on Wrice _were _her family. Or at least acquaintances. Main sequence stars had not drawn the attention of the fearlings, they went for the juveniles, creatures who had emotions while full grown stars didn't for the most part. Star herders, slender people who could survive in thin atmosphere and who were mainly nourished by starlight, who were pale and had white hair and blue eyes and were always seen with spears that kinda sort a looked like Jack's staff, fought along side them. They were guards for the youngest stars, brandishing weapons of starlight powered crystals. They fell so easily.

But nothing the computer told him helped Jack to understand what was the current threat. The fearlings were gone, left to devour other kingdoms, but they also didn't attack full grown stars. There was no fear there. Nothing but light and fusion. They knew as soon as they developed how long they had to live. The only thing that could destroy them was their internal fuel running out. Fearlings had no power over them.

He was staring at the night sky, a star chart of the area Sera had been looking at hours ago.

"_See? They're dying. Something is eating my family." _

"_You'll protect them from it, won't you? Protect me?"_

Her words echoed in his head. She obviously thought something was wrong with the sky, with the stars that lived in it. _Something is eating my family._ But he couldn't see any evidence of that. The sky was so full of stars, much more than the amount seen from Earth, and even on a live feed of the view Jack couldn't make out anything capable of eating a star.

What exactly was Sera scared of? What did she want protection from?

"Do you see it?"

Sera was up from her nap, or was it a good night's rest?, and looking over his shoulder.

"No." He admitted.

"Computer, show the same sky, from five million years ago."

The screen changed.

There were more stars in the sky.

"See?" she asked, flipping between the images. "The stars are disappearing."

"How do you know it's not just a black hole or something?"

She gave him a look that implied she thought he was stupid. "For a star herder, you don't know a lot about stars."

"About that...I'm not. A star herder I mean. I'm just a boy who died and then got turned into a spirit by the Man in the Moon. This isn't natural." He pulled at his hair. "Well, okay, it is now, but it's not original. I used to have brown hair, like you."

"You're just saying that. Dead people don't come back to life. You're a star herder." She pushed off from his shoulders.

"No Sera, I'm not." He stood on his knees on the chair, turning to look at her over the back. "I can't speak your language, or that of your parents or who ever is up there." He gestured to the sky outside the parked ship. "I'm from Earth."

"No! You're a star herder!"

Frustrated, Jack froze her feet to the floor. "Can star herders do that? Or this?" He frosted a section of the wall, drew an outline of a dolphin, and then had it swim about the room to explode into snow above her head. "Are star herders this cold?" He swept into her personal space, and she seemed to mind it a lot less than he did, to put both hands on either side of her face. "Are they?"

The look in her eyes was heartbreaking. It reminded him of the look on Jamie's face ten years ago, talking to that stuffed bunny. Wanting to believe in something so much, but knowing there was all this evidence against it.

"If you're not a star herder, who will protect me?" she whispered. "Something is _eating_ my family. It'll come for me."

"Well, I may not be a star herder, but I'm pretty good at protecting children." Never mind that by all standards, human and spirit years, he was much, much, much, much younger. But he supposed, if you compared how long they had lived compared to the average life span, they could be the same age. Maybe. He was bad at math.

"I said I'd protect you. I mean it."

She hiccuped and then broke down sobbing into his chest. Jack didn't mind the pulling and wetness, or the tight squeeze forcing air from his lungs. Because underneath all her craziness, Sera wasn't much different from a scared child. She had always had protectors, family, star herders, a Golden Army. But they were gone, had been for such a long time and she had clung to the first thing she found that was associated with safety – Jack's likeness to star herders.

He could relate to clinging to the one thing of home. It was why he still hung in Burgess, despite knowing more hospitable places. It was why he still hung out with Jamie and his friends, even though they were all now eighteen and nineteen – he had been too scared to let them go and forced them to continue to believe with never living Burgess for long.

"Don't worry. We'll figure things out." He had been a big brother, once upon a time. He had saved children, once not so long ago. Jack Frost could take on a star eater.

...Maybe.


	8. Travels

First there were Fearlings

**Chapter 8 **

* * *

The loaned ship was nice Sanderson had to admit. Top of the line, when it was built. But while that was millennium ago, nothing better had been made since. He knew there had been other space faring races then the stars and their allies, but none had traveled to Earth. It was sad, really. He had liked the cosmopolitan feel of alien trade cities.

There was enough room for them to move, which was fortunate. It made it quite easy for Pitch to hole himself up in a corner. Toothiana had tried to talk to him in that mothering way of hers, but he had politely brushed her aside. She may have a lot of knowledge about rediscovering memories, but she didn't have a lot of experience. The only one who did was Jack, and well, it was because of him they were even leaving the Sol system.

Pitch did not even want to talk to Sanderson. The Guardian would never had said they were friends, if any of them were friends with the Boogieman it would be Jack and even that was a stretch, but he and Pitch still shared a connection simply because of their age and what they had seen.

Like Pitch, Sanderson had known of the Golden Age, but had not lived it. He had no connection to it's people and had instead observed from a far when his orbit took him close. Pitch had the textbook facts of it's culture, the memories of it's destruction, but until a few hours ago that was it. Now that he could recall the life of when he had been Pitchner, Sanderson was sure he was recalling friendships and rivalries, loyalties and love. Sanderson's ability to relate had just dropped, and so Pitch had pushed the golden Guardian away as well to sit by himself in a corner.

"I worry about him." Toothiana admitted, not quite loud enough for Pitch to hear.

"Why?" Bunnymund scoffed.

"He just found and lost his family, all in the span of a minute. Surely, you can relate to that!"

"It's his own fault."

Sanderson shook his head, images of fearlings flashing above him.

"He gave in to them."

"Anyone would have, over time." St. North said. "From what I understand, he lasted longer than anyone else could have. Can you not say Bunny, that alone except for fear, that you would not break?"

Bunnymund crossed his arms and went back to staring out the window. Not that it provided stunning views. Moving at the speed of light meant the windshield showed nothing but a bright expanse of white. Sanderson supposed he could change it to show a simulation of motion, but he had no desire to play with Lunanoff's setting.

Changing the subject, Sanderson tugged on St. North's sleeve so he could see the image of the moon followed by a question mark.

"What do I think of Manny? I pictured him older. He doesn't not look much older than Tooth!"

"Yes, I was surprised too. But he was so kind. And took very good care of his teeth. Did you see the incisors on some of those moonmice? I've never been attracted to animal teeth before but oh! So symmetrical! And they glowed!"

Sanderson formed an image of Lunanoff flossing the moonmice's teeth, causing Toothiana to giggle.

"I can't see him doing that. Maybe one of the moonbots though."

There was a scoff from behind them and as one they all looked at Pitch.

"You can't tell me you've never seen bio-luminescence before. There's a number of fish on Earth that have that talent."

"No one looses teeth on the bottom of the ocean."

"What a pity."

-How are you doing, Pitch?-

Sanderson got a scowl for an answer. "My head hurts and my chest feels raw, how do you think I'm doing?"

"Talk with us." St. North invited. "Makes good distraction."

Pitch's scowl deepened. "I don't want a distraction."

"You just need time to processes all those memories." Toothiana fluttered closer. "Lots of time, for a whole life time."

"Because time is something we have a lot of!" He snapped at her, Toothiana jerking back towards the Guardians. "My daughter, who I just remembered I have, who may no longer be sane, has just kidnapped Jack thinking he's a member of a dead species because she feels threatened by something. Something, which is probably very real, that we will no doubt have to face and have no idea how to prepare to fight! And you four just want to have happy conversations about teeth and how lovely this ship is! Are you not worried at all?"

"Jack's our friend, of course we're worried!" Bunnymund marched towards Pitch, but Sanderson flew into his face to stop him. "And you're right, we don't know what's out there, but worrying about it isn't going to make things better. Neither is your little mope fest in the corner!"

"I am not moping! Do you know what it's like, to think you're one person and then suddenly discover you're someone completely different? To learn that you simultaneously are at opposite ends of a spectrum? That you have become what you despised? That, that you left your daughter-" It was very obvious to Sanderson that the Nightmare King looked like he was going to cry.

Bunnymund looked taken aback, but Toothiana flew forward to wrap Pitch in a hug. He let her, for just a second, and then none to gently shook her off. She didn't seem to mind.

-Pitch, I'm sorry- Sanderson said, floating closer.

"Please, don't call me that anymore." Sanderson noted that he had switched from English to Verbal, effectively cutting the Guardians out of the conversation aside from the word or two Bunnymund was sure to understand. "He, he didn't have these problems with feelings."

-Of course you did, why else did you attack us ten years ago?-

Pitch hissed, and Sanderson thought he detected a bit of remorse for that. That was a new emotion.

-Do you want me to use your old name?-

"Yes. No. He too was a different man."

-You are still the Nightmare King, controller of fearlings, even if you are suddenly more than you were yesterday. Pitch Black is a more appropriate name, is it not?-

Pitch frowned, hating his logic.

-And I'll admit- Sanderson continued – I have always called you by your new first name because it is linked to your old second one.-

Pitch smiled at that. "I wondered. You are usually so very formal."

The Guardian shrugged. -Remnants of an older culture. Despite all my time on Earth, some habits are hard to break.-

"I guess then I shall remain Pitch Black, for now."

Sanderson nodded. -If you change your mind, make sure you tell me.-

Pitch inclined his head.

Sanderson had hope for Pitch. He had been on the path out of darkness since Jack came, regaining his memories was a giant leap forward. He had a better chance of changing his story now, of gaining strong believers. He could, Sanderson speculated, even be happy sometime in the future. Especially since they were following his lost daughter.


	9. I Spy

**Chapter 9 – I Spy**

* * *

"I spy with my little eyes, something black and monstrous."

Sera smacked him. "All of space is black and monstrous."

"Uncalled for. You telling me you've never played I Spy before?"

"No."

"We're changing that." Jack moved the photos of night sky away, looked around the room, and felt his eyes settle on the chair Sera was sitting in. "I spy with my little eyes, something silver."

"Everything in this room is silver, of course you do."

"Not true! There's a lot of gray, I'm wearing blue, you've got on a green dress, and I do believe that's a row of red buttons of there. Now, you have to guess! What am I spying?"

Sera rolled her eyes, obviously not understanding the point but indulging Jack anyway.

"Your hair?"

"Nope."

"That tablets?"

"Guess again!"

"Hmm." She glanced around the room. Jack could tell she was somewhat active in playing the game for the game's sake, not just to please him.

"Your frost?" She pointed to the small space around his staff.

Jack smiled as he shook his head. "Good try, but no."

Sera narrowed her eyes, determined to get it right and did another sweep of the room. Her fingers tapped on the arm rest, and as she stared at them she smiled. "The chair."

"Bingo!"

In celebration, Jack sent blast of snow towards the ceiling so the flakes would have the time to drift down slowly. Sera laughed. "What does this game have to do with finding the star eater?"

"Nothing I guess. But it's the same principle isn't? Trying to locate it in all these pictures?" Jack reached out for them, bringing them close again. "And you're sure the stars that are gone don't have any personal connection to each other?"

"Of course they do! But that's more of a result of how many stars have been eaten. Is there one thing that connects them all? No. But there are connections between individuals. There always is."

"There's not much order to who's being eaten either. No straight line, no zig zags between stars. Though in general, it looks to be moving east." Was there an east in space? There was an east in the photos. Jack said so and so it was.

"You really are from Earth, aren't you? You only think in two dimensions."

Jack frowned.

"You know, the z-axis?"

His frowned deepened.

"Wow. Earth is really primitive."

"Hey! Just cuz I don't know about the z-axis doesn't mean other people do! I haven't been in a school in centuries!"

"From now on, I'm calling you Backwater Jack."

"And you're Crazy Sera."

"Fine by me."

Jack huffed as she came over to steal his photos. "The thing about space, and water too I guess, is that you have to think about depth. For example, these two stars, they aren't next to each other. This one is a hundred light years closer to us."

Jack looked at the stars. They looked like neighbors to him. "How can you tell?"

"I'm a star."

Jack rolled his eyes. "So, is there anything depth connection between them?"

"Shh, I'm trying to concentrate." She flapped a hand at him and Jack was overcome with the strong urge to bite it. Instead, he grabbed his staff and started pacing across the room, frost forming images of the village they had visited.

"Found it! There's is a pattern on the z-axis."

Jack skated over to her side. "You sure?"

"Yes I'm sure! All these stars are on the same plane." She was trembling, eyes wide.

"Sera, what's wrong?"

"It's, not very far from here. Maybe a two hour flight at light speed. For it to be so close, how come it hasn't come here?"

Maybe it was on it's way. But there was no reason to freak Sera out. "Well, what if it heard the rumors of a star herder too? What if it's scared of what a star herder could do to it? So it sat there, eating stars far enough away to not pose a threat to the planet below us but able to see if a star herder showed up."

"But Jack, one did. It's impossible to say you're not one just on sight."

"Curse my blinding good looks. What do you think it will do? Attack? Retreat?"

Sera shook her head, unable to speak, and Jack could tell she was absolutely frightened.

"Come here," he drew her into a hug. "I said I'd protect you and the best way to do that is by killing it. So, let's go attack it."

"With what weapon?!"

Jack tossed the crystal he had taken from the village into the air. "I figure this is pretty powerful. I'll tie it to my staff. And even if I'm not a star herder, I still got my powers from a moon. That's got to count for something, right?"

"That's stupid. Moons don't have power to give out."

"Well, technically it was the man who lives on the moon. But we don't have to tell the star eater that, do we?"

"No," she sniffled as she squeezed him tighter. "Thank you for helping Jack."

"I'm a Guardian, that's my job. Now go plug in coordinates or something. No use waiting around when we have a plan."

"And that plan is?"

"I'm gonna attack it and win."

"Oh my, you are stupid."

"That's me, Backwater Jack to the rescue. Hey, it's worked before, it'll work again." Granted it was Jamie who had attacked and won, not him. Jack's record was more along the lines of attack and lose, be it trust, staff, or the right to call Bunny a kangaroo. He had to stop choosing fights as the means of making deals. But hey, just talking wasn't very fun. Though he supposed that pranks would work just as well.


	10. A Touch of Death

**Chapter 10 - A Touch of Death**

* * *

The ship they were tracking was moving, at first rapidly, but then slowly searching through a region of space. It was tricky, keeping their ship on track. Changing coordinates while in lightspeed did not make for a smooth ride. Even St. North had lost his cookies.

Sanderson alone was able to handle the rough trip, but even then he was a bit queasy right after the switch in directions. Despite having his own ship, he had never been a very good pilot. He left most of the navigation to the computer and had never been in a situation where personal investment in the flight was needed. But usually you knew exactly where you were going, planets were stationary. Ships, not so much. How did members of the Golden Army handle this back in the Golden Age?

He sneaked a look at Pitch. The ex-general had taken control of navigating once the ship signature Lunanoff gave them started moving. He wasn't unaffected by the jerky movements the ship made as it suddenly changed course every so often, the bucket near him proved that, but he didn't look green around the edges like the Guardians did. Sanderson expected that was the result of experience.

"She's stopped moving," he announced, looking at the instruments on the console and Sanderson came to float near his shoulder.

-Are you sure?-

"Yes. The ship has been changing course regularly, but now it's stopped. Still moving of course, that happens when you shut your engines off, there's space drift, but for the past hour she hasn't done anything but that."

Sanderson noticed Pitch's avoidance of using Seraphina's name. It if helped him deal, the dreammaker wasn't going to stop it.

"So, no more sudden jerks?" Bunnymund's voice weakly called out from the ship's restroom. He had obviously heard Pitch talking.

"No more sudden jerks," the Nightmare King repeated.

"Is good." St. North mumbled from his position sitting against a wall, eyes closed.

Toothiana, next to him, gave a slow nod in agreement.

-How long until we catch up?-

"An hour, give or take."

-And when we get there, then what?-

Pitch didn't answer, so Sanderson spoke again. -Kozmotis Pitchner Black, when we get there, what will you do?-

Pitch started at the combination of his names and switched his attention from the instrument console to the golden Guardian floating beside him.

"I don't know." He admitted softly in Verbal. "The Prince made it seem as if Sera's mind has been altered by all these years of loneliness. I can't say the years have been kind to me, and I've at least known you and that fuzzy ball in the toilet have been around. What if she is crazy, Sanderson? What if she's violent, has hurt Jack? I don't know if I could fight her."

He sighed fingering the edges of a screen. "I am also worried about what caused her to act now. About why she feels like she needs a star herder to protect her. I'm her father, that's my job. Not Jack's. And while I understand that I am not who I was eons ago, nor who I was days ago, and so she would not seek my aid, it stills hurt. To know she sought aid from a stranger instead of me."

Sanderson couldn't say he sympathize. He didn't have any family, no comet did. He may be a shooting star, but that was a completely different species from Pitch. However, he did care for Jack, and the young Guardian had labeled them all as family. What if things were different, if Bunny heard rumors of another pooka and took off to find them, and Sanderson wasn't sure how his friend would react to his ship coming to prevent something rash?

-You could stay on the ship. We could go first.-

Pitch shook his head. "My daughter. My responsibility. I'll board the ship. But like I said, I don't think I could fight her. Perhaps we should enter together?"

It was a good plan. She would know both of them, to some extent. Pitch looked like Kozmotis a bit and Sanderson was obviously a comet. No other species was made from dream sand. He nodded and relief bloomed on Pitch's face.

A beeping sounded through out the ship, and the whited out screen slowly turned grey. They were slowing down.

Pitch and Sanderson stayed at the front of the ship, watching the view screen eagerly for the first look of where they were. The coordinates were familiar to both of them, but the ship's instruments had been off from either of their memories so an eye witness account was important. Slowly, St. North and Toothiana came to join and just as they came out of warp Bunnymund did as well, using a rolling chair for balance.

"What, what is that?" the spring spirit asked.

There was a small ship, obviously Golden Age technology despite the dings and signs of age, sitting still. Sanderson remembered this patch of the universe; it used to be filled with adult stars, so close together and bright that the space between them wasn't black but a navy blue. But there were black spaces now, large ones.

However, Bunnymund wasn't asking about that. No. Not far behind Seraphina's ship was a large, shifting black mass. It wasn't empty space, because the ship was picking up stars just beyond it and their light was visible at the edges like the corona of a sun during an eclipse.

Sanderson shook his head, leaving Pitch, the next oldest to answer the question. "I don't know."

As soon as he said the words, fear swept through the ship. It reminded Sanderson of fearlings, and he quickly looked at Pitch for he currently housed them. But the fearlings were still tight beneath his skin and the old general looked as if he was feeling something negative as well.

The air felt thick, the walls of the ship were crunching in, and Sanderson couldn't keep floating. He feel to the ground, but even though he was now too short to see the view screen the feeling remained.

"This, this is..." Toothiana couldn't speak, and so Bunnymund finished for her.

"Death."

Sanderson closed his eyes, realizing his friend was right. The feeling of fear had shifted, taking on a taste of desperation and surety.

"How, how is this possible?" Pitch whispered. The King of Nightmares, host of fearlings, was not immune to death. None of them were.

What had Seraphina Pitchner dragged Jack into? Dragged them all into?

It took a lot of effort, but Sanderson forced himself back into the air to sit on the seat Bunnymund was using as a crutch. It was just high enough to allow him to see.

The door of Seraphina's hold was facing them and as they watched it opened a crack. Out of it came Jack, using the ladder beside the door to climb to the top of the ship. If he saw the one the Guardians plus Pitch were using, he ignored it.

Once on the top of the ship, he stood up straight and proud, facing the writhing black cloud. His staff was beside him, something on the top glowing a brilliant blue.

Even though Sanderson knew better, knew that Jack was simply a winter spirit tied to the belief of children, his mind still labeled the figure as a star herder. Wielders of light and protectors of the stars.

"What's he doing?" Toothiana whispered.

In answer, Jack launched himself at the black cloud. It was closer to them then they expected, he was engulfed in seconds, and every single person on the ship cried out in dismay as they watched his form disappear.


	11. Deathling

**Chapter 11 - Deathling**

* * *

When the ship had stopped, they were facing darkness. It was only on one side of the ship, there were still stars on the other, and that was worrying.

"Star eater," Sera whispered, staring at the shifting mass of black, eyes wide and terrified. She had slipped down the wall, unable to do anything other than stare at it. "I'm going to die."

"No you're not!" Jack crouched down to her level, purposely blocking her view of the star eater. "We have a plan remember? Go out and attack it with this." He shook his staff in her face, the crystal attached to the top flashing bright.

Her eyes flicked to it briefly before returning to Jack's face. "But you're not a star herder."

"So? I'm a Guardian. That's better." He grinned and she halfheartedly tried to copy it.

"Close your eyes, and we'll play a game."

"I spy again?"

"No. Something different. I'm going to go out there and make note of every shape it takes, like...like cloud watching. You ever do that?" She nodded.

"Once the door closes, back the ship up," that would put some distance between her and the star eater, "and when it's far enough away so that it doesn't take up the window I want you to take note of all the shapes you see, okay? Have the AI take pictures of each one for you to label. When I come back, we'll compare our shapes. Sound good?"

Sera opened her eyes to look at him. She was more than terrified. Her eyes flicked to the side, Jack couldn't block her view completely. "We're both going to die," she whispered.

Frowning, Jack looked up to the ceiling to talk to the AI. "Can you help her play?"

"I will make Miss play."

Jack nodded and stood up. Sera didn't notice, she was still staring out the black window, tremors making their way up and down her body. Her mind had shut down in terror. He had to put his faith in the ship.

He ran to the air lock, sealing it off to keep Sera's air. "Open the doors."

As soon as there was room enough for him to slip out he did, using the ladder bolted into the side of the space ship to climb to the top. Once there, he stared. Jack was scared. This close, he could almost feel the inky cloud on his skin and something was starting to come to the forefront of his mind. Something that would prevent him from doing what he could to protect Sera.

The ship underneath him hummed, getting ready to pull back. Jack crouched, there was no wind here to help him fly so he would have to jump into the star eater. The star herder crystal had been glowing since he tied it to his staff, powered by his magic he figured, but it had grown brighter as he climbed to the ship's roof. He pushed off the metal under his feet and the crystal seemed to reach it's peak brightness just before the star eater swallowed him.

The star eater was thick, he could barely move and the black ink on his skin was cold. He was Jack Frost, and he was cold. There was a pressure in his chest, he couldn't get air, and something was dragging him down and down. His fingers were going numb, his eyes were fluttering closed as the single point of light above him grew smaller and smaller. He was Jackson Overland, and he was drowning.

But no, that wasn't right. There was a staff in his right hand, the wood coarse under his palm, and the light wasn't pale and white or above him. It was painfully bright, an electric blue, and coming from his right. He wasn't dying. He couldn't die. He was already dead.

Suddenly, there was a woman in front of him.

Something about her reminded him of Sera. He couldn't place it. Nothing physical, they looked nothing alike. Sera had dark hair and dark eyes, this woman was fair and very gaunt. But it was something about the way she carried herself. And then when she spoke, he realized that the headband he was still wearing translated her words into English. The language she was actually using was the one Sera used. Verbal.

This woman was a star.

"Star herder, why aren't you dead?"

Jack decided not to answer. Not that he could have anyway, there being no air and all to force over his vocal cords. Wrice didn't have enough air for that, the heart of space certainly had less.

"Star herder, why isn't my deathling affecting you?"

Deathling? Jack had learned a bit about fearlings from Sera's ship while he had taken her nap/night sleep. They were artificial creations that really, the stars should have seen coming. He understood wanting to understand fear, wanting to face it and kill it. He knew Pitch Black after all. But giving fear a physical form had just seemed like a stupid thing to do. And it had come back to bite the civilization in the butt. The fearlings had taken a host, who had then single highhandedly ended the Golden Age. Sera, he figured, was the only survivor.

Well, only surviving star. The computer had mentioned something about pooka, and for all he knew Bunny was _that_ old. And he seemed to have a beef with Pitch that went way back, it was possible the Boogieman knew of that bygone time. Sandy certainly did, but he didn't think the shooting star had been a part of the Golden Age. Jack got the impression he had been a lone floater, going where gravity told him to. Wait a minute, the Moon, or rather the man who lived in it, was from the Golden Age too. Was he a juvenile star as well?

He didn't know if it would be a good idea or bad idea to let her continue to think he was a star herder. But he also didn't have the means of informing her he wasn't one.

Jack brought his staff in front of him, crystal at the end still glowing. The woman glared at him and started talking. But it was quite evident from how she was talking that she wasn't talking _to_ him. She was simply talking, as if thinking out loud. Which, Jack supposed, was exactly what she was doing. The images of stars disappearing Sera had shown her went back hundreds of years. If this woman was controlling the star eater, the deathling, she probably had no one to talk to for years. It was no surprise that someone in such a situation would start talking to themselves. He had.

"They always were stronger against fearlings than any other race, no one knew why, but there were theories. Spending so much time in the depths of space and the dangers there made them used to fear. They knew how to conquer it. Or simply their affinity to light is what made the fear smaller, easier to mange. But I made this deathling to defeat the fearlings. Nothing escapes death, not even fear. He should feel it, like the stars I've consumed. Like I did, when my ship was attacked and my son and husband killed. When the Golden Age fell. The death of so many. Everyone. Stars. Star herders. The fearlings have to pay, they have to die, everything has to die, everything has to pay for loosing them. Everything dies, everything, so why isn't he?"

To say he was nervous would be an understatement. This woman was obviously unhinged, worse than Sera. Why else would someone who had first hand experience with fearlings create something even more powerful? Sera called this a star eater, and Jack had the feeling that it, she, the deathling, was only temporarily eating stars. The woman wanted the world to pay.

It wasn't just this section of space in trouble, it was the universe. Earth may be light years away and safe for now, but it was only temporary. Never mind that Jamie's great-great-great-great-great grandkids might be ancient when the deathling finally came to his home. It would come. It would kill them all.

Except for him, because Jack was already dead.

"Maybe star herders as just harder to kill. Yes yes, used to death, used to dark all around. It has to be inside, inside, and then they will die and that light will be gone. Light, light, like the moonbots and moonmice, all gone, all gone now. And soon, he will be too."

Jack did not like where this was going.

Think! What had stopped the fearlings, even if it had been too late? He didn't know. The AI hadn't said the fearlings had been destroyed, just that they eventually stopped attacking people. But they had been changed. They'd taken a human host, that general. Maybe, just maybe, he had regained control of them?

For some reason, Jack's mind gave him an image of Pitch. He was sitting on a nightmare, grinning, and then he was in the grayness of his liar, talking about fear. The Boogieman himself had said he was the embodiment of fear, and in the past ten years as they've gotten to know each other Jack couldn't lie about the strange thing that was up with Pitch and shadows. Pitch _was_ shadows, how they crept and changed shape as lights moved the same way Jack was snow and Winter.

But Pitch wasn't the shadow man, he was the Boogieman and Nightmare King. Who fed on fear and not nightmares like his names suggested.

Hadn't the AI said fearlings moved in the shadows and were the cause of nightmares? Couldn't Pitch, strangely, understand Sandy when the other Guardians couldn't? Didn't Pitch know battle tactics?

He had thought Sera looked a bit familiar when she had first kidnapped him, and now that he was thinking of Pitch Black Jack noticed the similarities between the two of them. The same slope of the nose. The same color hair. The prominent brow and barely there eyebrows.

Moon above, was it possible that the Golden General, once proud hero and the fearling host, was Pitch Black?

Jack decided, whether it was true or not, he would believe that. Because he had learned over the years that belief was power and if he believed that a human was capable of taking inside them fearlings and then controlling them, the same idea should work on the deathling. Logically.

And who better to host a deathling then a dead teenager, brought back to life with moon magic? Star magic.

They woman in front of him waved her arms at Jack and he could feel the deathling swarm him. Vine like tentacles crept up his legs and down his arms. One tried to wiggle between his palm and his staff, but Jack tightened his grip. How does one become a host to something like this? How could he begin to control it?

He would have to take it into himself.

Jack opened his mouth and the deathling rushed inside, snaking down his throat to enter his lungs and stomach.

The woman was laughing with glee. "Yes yes. Nothing escaped the fearlings and nothing will escape the deathling. I am Charaka Lunanoff, Tsarina of the stars, and I will bring about the death of the universe because if they can't live, no one should."

Jack was only mildly aware of her words, because he was beginning to think that maybe his idea was wrong. He had expected to relieve his drowning, but instead his core was getting hot. He was sweating, melting, the ice that had coated him due to the coldness of space and his powers evaporating. Death was coming to him, not a human one but a spiritual one, a death as Jack Frost as his veins filled with first Summer and then the boiling heat of Earth's mantle. He screamed, silently dying. And the woman was laughing and laughing.

He was absolutely terrified. For himself, for Jamie and Pippa, for the Guardians, and for the world.

This deathling had to be stopped!

Jack focused on the heat under his skin and called forth his magic, counteracting it. He gripped his staff in concentration and even through his clenched eyelids he could see the light the crystal on top of his staff was giving off. He brought to mind all those he loved and wanted to save, used it as fuel.

The woman, Charaka, was shouting. "No! You're supposed to be dead! Or dying! And why, why do you have _that_ magic! It belongs to my son! HOW DO YOU HAVE IT!"

Because he had been brought back from the dead thanks to a man in the Moon to be a Guardian of Earth, and now by trapping the embodiment of death he would be a Guardian of the universe.

Jack opened his eyes through the pain. He could see stars again, outside the bright light the crystal was giving off. The deathling was shrinking, filling up every bit of empty space in his body, taking over cells and air pockets, but it was shrinking.

And then, it was all gone.

It was in him, and Jack was having a hard time controlling the pain. But he had to, he had to! Because if gave in he knew the deathling would escape.

There was a soft hand on his hair, brushing back the locks stiff with frozen sweat. It was Charaka, and her eyes were so haunted. "Oh Nightlight, you saved my boy didn't you? And now you are here to guard him again. Why didn't you come find me? Why didn't I come find you two? I am so, so sorry."

Jack watched through his tears as Charaka floated away from him for a few feet. "It's time I grow."

And then she exploded.

* * *

**A/N:** Yes, I totally screwed canon over here by putting in the MiM's mom. I was originally going to use a sister, cuz really I swear royal families breed like mad and one child seemed unlikely. Plus, I love a myth I read somewhere about two sisters in the moon and their brother in the sun and then how they switched places because the men would ogle them all the time and not work. And now, when you look at the sun, you feel their needles in your eyes as they sew the sunsets and sunrises.

But ultimately, I decided on using his mom. She would have a deeper grief I feel, and thus more likely to go crazy and create the deathling. Charaka by the way means 'moon' in Amharic, which I'm pretty sure is one of the oldest languages in the world so I thought it was fitting. I mean, really, the language is pretty much unchanged since the days of Ancient Egypt, and is still kicking.


	12. Riding the Shockwave

**Chapter 12 – Riding the Shockwave**

* * *

"What does he think he's doing?!" Bunnymund yelled as Toothiana buzzed up against the crystal, whispering Jack's name.

Sanderson had no clue, but he was going to help. -Pitch, get us closer!-

"We might have other worries first." He pointed to the ship they had tracked.

It was coming towards them at moderate speed, obviously not trying to get away. Which was a good point for Seraphina, because it meant she wasn't abandoning Jack.

St. North took action, fiddling with the communication panel until he hailed the ship. "Stop moving," he barked out.

Pitch brushed him aside and began speaking in Verbal. Sanderson could see the general he now remembered being shining through. "This is an envoy from the RFS Moon Clipper. You are ordered to halt all movement and prepare for an in space docking."

The voice that responded was not Seraphina, but rather what had to be the ship's AI based on its speech flow. "Acknowledged."

It slowed down and then positioned itself along side. Sanderson flew over to the hatch doors and started telling the ship what type of docking he wanted. In space was tricky, you had to preserve atmosphere and so wanted to have as little space as possible between the two ships to aid with that. Both ships' AIs were good at flying, to the point when Sanderson opened the sliding door he was face to face with the hull of Seraphina's.

The Guardians and Pitch were behind him and when the door on the other side opened the Guardian's pushed forward, faces stern. Pitch held back, face uncertain and Sanderson floated at level with his head.

-Are you okay?-

"I'm not sure." He crossed into Seraphina's ship regardless.

The Guardians were crowding around a figured curled up on the floor and asking stern questions. Through legs and the spaces between bodies, Sanderson could see a young black haired woman. Pitch growled and started pushing everyone away.

"Get away from my daughter!"

Bunnymund, St. North, and Toothiana all withdrew quickly, backing up to the control panel.

Pitch crouched down to Seraphina's level. "Sera. Sera, look at me." Gently, he brought up a hand to push her chin up from where it was against her chest. Sanderson had rarely seen a gentle side to Pitch, aside from rare moments with Jack which is what made him not mind the friendship the two were starting.

Slowly, Seraphina allowed her head to lift to look at Pitch. When she saw him, she frowned.

"Sera, it's me."

But it was obvious she had no idea who 'me' was. She was looking at Pitch's face intently, no doubt seeing hints of Kozmotis, but obviously not recognizing him in his current form. The fearlings had changed him too much.

"Any idea about this, mate?"

Sanderson looked over his shoulder to see what Bunnymund was talking about. The ship was watching the black cloud, they were far enough away where it just fit in the ship's main view window. The ship was also taking stills of the cloud at regular intervals and then putting them in a folder labeled 'Jack's Game'.

"What's Jack's Game?" Toothiana asked.

"Oh! I need to play." Seraphina's voice was shaky, but she still stood up and made her way to the screen.

Toothiana flew over to her, sending a wary glance towards Pitch who was hovering behind his daughter. "Play what?"

"Cloud Watching, he called it. I have to see pictures in the star eater's shape and then compare them with what Jack sees when he comes back."

"Star eater?"

Seraphina hunched up. "The black cloud. It's been eating stars for so long, all my family. Jack said he'd protect me."

"How?" St. North prodded.

"He said he'd protect me." It wasn't an answer any of them were looking for, and knowing Jack he had gone into the cloud, the star eater, without a solid plan. But it was very obvious that Seraphina believed that Jack would protect her.

Sanderson stared at the star eater on the screen, half observing Seraphina starting to label images in the pictures the AI had taken. He was more concerned with what Seraphina had called it than what she saw in it's shifting form. Star eater. He had never heard of anything destroying a star aside from natural age and running out of fuel. And even though his form had been destroyed by the fearling infested dream sand, he had still survived. Fearlings had no power over adult stars, just juvenile ones. What could eat adult ones?

He was very, very scared for Jack.

As if on cue, something was changing with the star eater. Pitch was offering shape suggestions for Seraphina, it was obvious Jack's game was the only thing grounding her. The other Guardians were talking amongst themselves, trying to figure out the next step and what exactly they were up against. No one else noticed the strange blue glow coming from the dark cloud. It was also shrinking in size.

Sanderson tried to get their attention, but no one was looking his way. Frantically, he looked around for something to make noise because Bunnymund was talking about retrieving some type of light weapon and there wasn't enough time for that. Not if the light was an attack heading towards the ships.

As it turned out, Pitch noticed the new light and size from Seraphina's snapshots. Startled at the changes, his head snapped up to stare at the star eater. "What is that?"

The other Guardians broke off their conversations to watch. While the light wasn't changing, the cloud was continuing to shrink. Sanderson couldn't help but feel there was something familiar about the light, something that was niggling at the edge of his older memories. He had seen it before, emitted by crystals.

He frowned, striving to remember, and then it clicked. Star herders. Star herders had used crystals like that. Sanderson used his sand to briefly block everyone's view and when they all turned to look at him conjured a sand figure of Jack above his head.

"Jack is making light?" St. North asked and Sanderson nodded. He wasn't entirely sure what exactly was happening, but who else could cause such a display?

He turned to Seraphina. -Did you give Jack Frost a star herder crystal?-

"We visited the village on Wrice. He took one and tied it to his staff. Even though he kept saying he wasn't a star herder, he was able to make it glow."

Strange. Star herders had just seemed to have a natural affinity to the crystals, why would a human born child have the ability to make them work?

"They responded to star magic," Pitch threw out. "And isn't that what made him Jack Frost?"

Oh course! Lunanoff's magic! Jack had his own brand now, a mixture of the power of belief that sustained him and his own spirit. But Lunanoff had jump started it. It would make sense for the star herder crystal to react to that.

-Do you think that will allow him to defeat this star eater?-

"He said it would." Seraphina pouted but Pitch's face told a different story. He switched from Verbal to English to answer, so his daughter couldn't understand.

"A whole race of star herders couldn't stop the fearlings, and this thing scares the fearlings in me. I do not think the fact that Jack has one star herder weapon will make a difference. Especially because he'd only be able to use it at half capacity if anything."

"So what do you suggest we do?" Bunnymund asked, arms crossed across his chest.

"This is like the fearlings all over again, and we know how that ended." Pitch winced, because he was intimately aware of just how bad that was. So was Bunnymund, and the Guardian paled under his fur.

"How did that end again?" Toothiana asked. The Golden Age was just a historical tale to her, it would be impossible to expect her to remember the answer.

Sanderson looked to Pitch. He had only seen the battle from afar. Bunnymund hadn't seen it at all.

"Nightlight. He attacked...the fearlings' host. Me. I don't remember the details of my early possession, they had too much control. But my memories are my own starting when he attacked me. It shocked me into trying to retain the fearlings, to take back control of my body. It took a long time, and I don't think I could have done it without being pierced to the Earth by his staff. It gave me time to regain control while the fearlings were concentrating on how to pull the staff out."

Sanderson floated up and put a hand on Pitch's shoulder. Seraphina had gone back to her picture game, not bothering to use the headband beside her to translate their speech. Maybe that was better, because she would have realized Pitch was her father. Sanderson wasn't sure she was ready for that quite yet.

"We don't have centuries to do that, Jack's in that mess now!"

"Maybe not." St. North pointed towards the star eater. It was tiny now, hard to see, the dark space it had taken up on the screen now filled with stars and Sanderson could feel the absence of so many that should have been there. Star eater indeed. But he pushed aside his grief at the deaths to focus on the two figures that had appeared where the center of the dark mass had been. One was a woman. The other was Jack. Miraculously still there, pale and bathed in a blue light.

And then, the woman exploded.

But not just any type of explosion. It held the power of nuclear fission and even from inside the ship Sanderson smelled helium. She had been a juvenile star and just now made the transition to adulthood.

Pitch and Seraphina were still, watching the small bit of light explode outward. Usually there was a whole ceremony involved in a star's transformation, but being just the two of them they started singing a traditional song in Verbal about new beginnings. Sanderson debated about joining them, he wasn't a main sequence star like them and thus had his own traditions, but the appearance of a new light in the sky was always something to celebrate.

But maybe now wasn't the time to do so.

"It's coming right for us!" Toothiana's voice was high with terror and Sanderson was reminded of why juvenile stars on the cusp of adulthood went out into the darkness of space alone. The transformation was sudden, violent, and the heat could be high enough to damage to the ships and them still inside.

As it was, a shockwave hit the connected ships as the sudden appearance of a ton of mass warped gravity in the area. The AI informed them that the in space dock had been destroyed, leaving everyone on Seraphina's ship and the one they came in empty.

Pitch turned to the controls, not waiting for the AI to take over the flight system and powered up the engines. They had to escape the heat. The ship jumped forward, sending all but Pitch who had been expected it to the floor.

"We can't leave, Jack's still back there!"

"If we don't leave, we're dead."

Bunnymund pulled out his boomerang, but Sanderson stopped him from throwing it. Instead, he showed an image of Jack above his head, and then flames flicking at his feet, climbing slowly until the entire figure was consumed.

He hated to say it, but in a battle between a frost spirit and a newly birthed star, Sanderson's money was on the star. Jack was beyond their help at the moment, and even if he did survive they couldn't help him if they didn't.

Bunnymund pushed him away, not liking his answer, and pushed himself to his feet again.

Seraphina was looking out the window. "The star eater turned into a star," she whispered to herself, "Jack protected me. Protected my family."

"Can you go any faster?" Toothiana was nervously looking at the screen. It was obvious the ship wouldn't outrun the shock-wave, but just maybe they could get far enough away so they weren't hit with it at full strength.

"Everyone, hang on to something!" Pitch release the controls and dived for Seraphina, pulling them both under the control console to grab a support beam. Toothiana followed their lead, but the other Guardians weren't quick enough. Sanderson caught a glimpse of St. North being thrown against a wall as the wave of pressure and heat hit them so hard he felt his dreamsand loose it's form and he was forced into millions of tiny pieces. Someone might have called out his name in alarm.

When it passed, and Sanderson had pulled himself together again, the Guardians and Pitch were patching each other up from small first aid kits. No one seemed worse for the ware aside from cuts and bruises. Well, and a bit of singing. The ship's shields had kept out most of the heat,but some still leaked through leaving St. North with a beard half as long, Bunnymund with rather short fur, and Toothiana with a few bald spots.

Seraphina, ignoring her crinkly hair, was talking to the AI. "Do you see him? Did he make it?"

"I can't tell yet Miss, there's a lot of space to cover. I did however find the other ship."

Lunanoff's ship was brought up in the corner of the screen. Sanderson assumed it looked like theirs did, blackened on one side and giving off heat. There might not have been a shimmer like that above baking pavement due to a lack of atmosphere, but there was a hint of one thanks to left over atoms from the star's birth.

They were quite a ways from it. The shock-wave had pushed them several parsecs and the ships hadn't been forced in similar directions.

The AI continued to search in the area of the newer ship, and Sanderson caught the odd shape just as Seraphina did. "Look! There's something behind it."

Something was jutting out below the ship, just visible from this angle, but it was impossible to tell. Regardless, it was worth checking out. They needed to return to the ship anyway.

It took longer than Sanderson wanted to reach the ship, it was still moving on the inertia from the shock wave. He wanted to returned to where the star eater had been to look for Jack, but it was logical to get to Lunanoff's ship first. It would continue to get father away, and Seraphina's AI had yet to turn up any evidence of Jack – alive or dead.

That is, until they boarded Lunanoff's ship. The AI, already well aware of their mission, promptly informed them at their boarding that it had picked up someone matching Jack's description. Apparently, the winter sprite had slammed into the ship's side hard enough to turn it, and then it acted as a shield protecting Jack from the worse of the shock wave. After the computer had finished fritzing, it had opened the doors and brought the spirit inside.

The AI hadn't even finished it's full explanation before Seraphina was running around corners and towards the airlock. The others quickly followed, but none of them could take the last few steps forward.

Jack was still in the airlock, separate from the main portion of this ship, and Sanderson couldn't decided if he was thankful for that or not. Through the windows, they could all see Jack lying still on the floor. His staff had been incinerated, but clutched in his right hand was something glowing. The crystal, Sanderson assumed.

But while the loss of the staff alone was reason to worry, that's not what made Sanderson wonder if the door was a good idea.

It was the fact that sheer waves of malice and decay seemed to reach from the airlock towards them with gnarled fingers.

Seraphina was sobbing. "I thought the star eater was gone, but no, it just took over Jack. He failed, we're all gonna die."

Pitch didn't even try to quite her. Instead, Toothiana pulled the young woman to her chest and made crooning noises.

Sanderson didn't know how long they stood there, just staring at Jack and waiting for death to claim them.

But it didn't, and that gave Sanderson the time to notice how Jack looked different. He couldn't tell if it was the work of the crystal's glow or not, but Jack seemed less pale, less white. His hair reminded Sanderson of volcano ash and his skin seemed to change colors. Under normal circumstances, the comet would say the later was the result of flickering light, but the crystal was holding steady. No flickering. No, Jack's skin itself was two toned, almost as if something was living in the boy's veins and causing shadows as it moved.

"He's like me." Pitch whispered and the Guardians snapped their attention to him.

"What do you mean?" Bunnymund crossed his arms, not liking anyway that sentence could go.

"I...the fearlings. They were scared of the star eater, and now they're scared of Jack. I think...he's like me."

"You are making little sense."

"Just like I am now host to all the fearlings created, I think Jack absorbed the star eater."

-How is that possible?-

Pitch just shrugged, switching to Verbal. "When I was taken over, it was because -" He swallowed, looked at the still sobbing Seraphina, and switched back to English.

"I was forced to become a host, it was because it was the only way for the fearlings to escape their prison. Us stars and star herders had dealt enough damage to destroy their ability to have forms for long. And I'm sure you all know what that process did to me." He waved his hands down his body.

Bunnymund grimaced. A recently possessed Pitch had essentially killed off three species.

St. North frowned. "But this," he gestured to Jack still in the airlock, "is different. It had form. And Jack does not seem to be doing evil deeds like you did straight from the start."

-He is still radiating death though. It is hard to say what Jack will be like when he wakes.-

Pitch nodded. "Sanderson is right. At this point, Jack is unpreditable."

"Can you help him?" They all turned to Toothiana. "I mean, you got control over the fearlings. Surely you could help him learn control over this."

"I can do my best. But I warn you, it's not an easy process. Nor a quick one. It might be best if Jack doesn't return to Earth for while."

St. North pursed his lips. "Jack is still a Guardian. He gains power from his believers. If is not near Earth, his power will be weak and I am thinking he will need it."

Pitch frowned, understanding the logic but really not liking it.

-What about the Moon Clipper?- Sanderson formed an image of the moon above his head.

"No, I am not putting Lunanoff in danger again."

"Anyone else have suggestions?" Toothiana buzzed in. "If the Moon is out, and so is Earth, what about another planet? Mars maybe? I'm assuming Jack still would do best in cold climates. Maybe Pluto would be better. Or Ceres? That's closer to Earth."

Sanderson floated and watched the Guardians and Pitch debate. He was glad to know that Jack was okay, if changed, and that Pitch was willing to help him through this. The shooting star knew that Pitch's memory loss was an intentional side effect of the possession, a last minute attempt to protect him and Seraphina. But the loss of control, of not even fully knowing what was going on around him until the attack on the Moon Clipper which had been years after he had been infected...Sanderson had no wish for Jack to go through such things. He had been so torn up over not having memories from before he was chosen, and this would be too similar.

He looked through the window into the airlock, and then really wish he carried around a bell to get the others' attention. Even if Pitch could understand him, he had to at least be looking at him to read the visual patterns.

The AI seemed to see his dilemma and spoke up for him. Clever thing, Sanderson forgot how good Golden Age computing had been. His own ship was too old to have one.

"The Sandman has something to say."

They all turned to him, and while Sanderson did say his piece it wasn't exactly necessary as they could see for themselves what he was concerned over through the window behind him. -Seraphina's in the airlock with Jack, and he's awake.-

* * *

**A/N: **When I first thought about this fic and was outlining it in my head, I had this idea that at some future point in this AU that I probably wouldn't write Seraphina and Lunanoff would be a couple. Same species, similar age and all that. But as this chapter got moving, I realized she's very attached to Jack...oops? Cuz right now, I don't think he'd be the wisest choice for a partner.

If you guys want fic updates and feed into my mind, check out my new tumblr! .com


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